Heroin deaths epidemic baffles scientists

Scientists last night admitted that an unknown illness that has so far killed 31 heroin addicts in the UK and Ireland has reached "epidemic proportions".

Scientists last night admitted that an unknown illness that has so far killed 31 heroin addicts in the UK and Ireland has reached "epidemic proportions".

Teams of medical specialists, and a squad of detectives are now working round the clock to solve the mystery of what the illness is and where it came from. They are increasingly concerned at the speed at which the death toll is rising and the spread of the deaths to locations in England in the past few days.

Experts from leading research laboratories worldwide have been called in, but remain mystified as to the cause of the sudden and agonising deaths, first reported in Glasgow at the start of April and whose latest victims were announced last Friday.

Microbiologists suspect that the cause is a form of bacteria they have never seen before, but they have not isolated it despite weeks of tests on samples at laboratories including the world's leading disease control centre in Atlanta, Georgia, and the chemical defence establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire.

The Porton Down lab was asked to look for traces of anthrax but found none. Attention is now centring on an unknown variant of an existing bacteria, most likely botulism, which is one of the deadliest toxins.

Police, led by a detective superintendent with the Strathclyde force, have set up a round-the-clock team entering data on "Holmes" (Home Office Large Major Enquiry System) to see if it can come up with answers. It is normally used in conventional homicides.

Although a bacterium is the most likely cause, some strain of virus is not being ruled out. Scientists do not believe the illness can spread from person to person, as with HIV, but admit they cannot be sure, and medical staff handling bodies and patients are taking no risks.

Dr Laurence Gruer, public health consultant at the Greater Glasgow Health Board, told the Independent on Sunday: "In strict public-health terms it is now an epidemic. It has reached a level of infection well above the normal. We have never come across anything like this. We have no way of knowing how big it is."

Dr Gruer ventured that the heroin had been imported through Liverpool, then distributed to Dublin and Glasgow. "One theory is it has come from Liverpool. There are no deaths in Liverpool but that could be because it came in there and was then moved on."

The 31 deaths are from a total of 63 reported cases. There have been 16 deaths in Scotland (14 in Glasgow and two in north-east Scotland) eight in Dublin and seven, announced on Friday night by the Public Health Laboratory Service, in England.

The condition seems to affect heroin addicts who inject into muscle rather than a vein. Addicts normally inject into a muscle only because they can no longer find a vein because of heavy drug use. Infection spreads from an abscess formed at the point of injection but rapidly moves through the body causing total breakdown of the vital organs, especially the heart. Death is agonising and usually occurs in hours. Antibiotics and all known treatments cannot prevent it.

By 19 May, the Greater Glasgow Health Board had grown so alarmed by the number of deaths that it issued a warning on the European Infection Warning System. Ireland's public health bodies began studying deaths among heroin users and public health doctors in England and Wales are now doing the same.

Professor Brian Duerden, deputy director of the Public Health Laboratory Service, said: "It is not something that has been reported before."

Leading epidemiologists were sent last week from the Infectious Diseases Centre in Atlanta, with Dr Kristy Murray working with a team in Dublin and Dr Jai Lingappa in Glasgow. A spokesman in Atlanta said: "This is a rare illness, that's for sure. But we have to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible."